I'm making the move to an OAG from a ZWO guidescope.
The guidescope has worked flawlessly for me......I'm changing purely to try and improve my pictures as I'm told this is what I need to do (yet to be proven but I'll give it a try!)
I have been using an asi120 colour (USB3) with the guidescope but probably require something a little more sensitive for the OAG so I started looking at a mono camera. The obvious (cheapest) choice was to go down the track of the asi120 mono mini.
You know what though......NOWEHERE on the web could I find actual evidence of how much more sensitive a mono camera was compared to a colour one. Best I could find is numerous posts on what people thought, but no actual evidence. Ridiculous hey!
So here is the evidence.......all pics taken of the same patch of sky within a 5 minute period under 98% moon. PHD2 screen contrast slider was all the way to the right (darkest)
- Pic 1 ASI120 Colour (USB3) through a ZWO guidescope (Gain 95, Exp - 3 sec)
- Pic 2 ASI120 Colour through a ZWO guidescope (Gain 95, Exp - 3 sec). Binning 2x2
- Pic 3 ASI120 Mono mini (USB2) through a ZWO guidescope (Gain 95, Exp - 3 sec)
- Pic 4 ASI120 Mono mini (USB2) through a ZWO guidescope (Gain 95, Exp - 1.5 sec). Binning 2x2. Note this was a 1.5 second pic as background sky brightness due to the moon gave me a white screen.
I'm feeling confident the extra sensitivity of the mono, especially when binned, will work for the OAG.
Telescope is a WO FLT132 F7, OAG will be the ZWO model (yet to arrive).....anyone comment on their experience with this camera/OAG setup?